1.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world

2.
Edoardo Raffinerie Garrone
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ERG S. p. A. is a publicly listed Italian energy company, founded in 1938 and based in Genoa, Italy. Following a period of transformation, ERG Group is now the leading operator in wind energy in Italy and is currently among the top ten in Europe. It also owns a combined power plant in Priolo Gargallo in Sicily and recently purchased the Terni hydroelectric unit from EON Produzione. ERG Renew is present with 252 MW in France,168 MW in Germany, in Romania, over the course of 2015, wind farms in Poland became operational. ERG was founded by Edoardo Guida Garrone in 1938, founding a company for the refining of petroleum, in 1952 signs an agreement to refine the oil on behalf of BP. During the 1960s and 1970s has started to build oil refineries and pipelines in Italy, in particular a pipeline in Arquata Scrivia. In the 1980s has acquired the petrol stations networks owned by Elf, Chevron and BP in Italy, since 1997 the company is listed on the Italian Stock Exchange. In 1999 it opened gas, stations network in Spain through ERG Petroleos, in 2008 it signed an agreement with Lukoil, sharing the 49% of oil refinery in Priolo Gargallo. In 2009 it launched its own Mobile virtual network operator, ERG Mobile, in 2010 ERG Petroli and TotalErg Italia merge in TotalErg, starting operation on October 1,2010. ERG has been the sponsor of U. C. Sampdoria, a club owned by the Garrone family, for more than 9 years

3.
Vodafone Italy
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Vodafone Italia is a fully owned subsidiary of Vodafone Group plc. In December 1995, Omnitel Pronto Italia launched its services in Italy, Omnitel was a mobile operator and Infostrada was a fixed-line operator. They belonged to Olivetti and represented the first telephone alternative to monopolists TIM, original majority owner Olivetti sold its interest in Omnitel and Infostrada to the German consortium Mannesmann after Olivettis took control of Telecom Italia, and thus TIM, in 1999. Mannesmann took control of Omnitel with a 53. 7% equity stake, the following year, Vodafone purchased Mannesmann, thus taking control of Omnitel and creating the joint-stock company Vodafone Omnitel N. V. legally resident in the Netherlands. Vodafone Italy introduced the new Speechmark Logo only on 10 June 2007, the company slogan varied from that of the international Vodafone campaign and was Life is NOW, but now is the same global one power to you. The company website was known as 190. it as 190 is the customer care number for Vodafone Italy, starting from July 2008, the company URL has been changed from 190. it to vodafone. it. The companys spokesmodel from 1999 to 2006, for both Omnitel and Vodafone, was Australian model Megan Gale, which rose to fame thanks to these advertisings, since taking over the company, Vodafone has introduced its suite of services in Italy, such as Vodafone live. And UTMS/HSPDA services, and has collaborated in partnership to launch of Mobile virtual network operators for other corporations, in 2007, like in Spain, Vodafone Italy bought the Italian branch of Tele2, renaming later as TeleTu in 2010, adding fixed-line network offers. On 16 December 2013, Vodafone Omnitel N. V. changed its name to Vodafone Omnitel B. V. and became a limited liability company. On 23 November 2015, Vodafone Omnitel B. V. moved its legal residence back to Italy, changing its name to Vodafone Italia S. p. A. and becoming a joint-stock company again. The mobile network of Vodafone Italy is made from 19.039 physical sites, of these, about 90 operators allow you to reach the 4G-LTE coverage in 70 countries worldwide. Thanks to the use of,1.210 sites ULL and 270 sites SLU17

4.
GSM
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As of 2014 it has become the de facto global standard for mobile communications – with over 90% market share, operating in over 219 countries and territories. This expanded over time to include communications, first by circuit-switched transport, then by packet data transport via GPRS. Subsequently, the 3GPP developed third-generation UMTS standards followed by fourth-generation LTE Advanced standards, GSM is a trademark owned by the GSM Association. It may also refer to the most common voice codec used, the decision to develop a continental standard eventually resulted in a unified, open, standard-based network which was larger than that in the United States. In February 1987 Europe produced the very first agreed GSM Technical Specification, the MoU drew-in mobile operators from across Europe to pledge to invest in new GSM networks to an ambitious common date. In 1989, the Groupe Spécial Mobile committee was transferred from CEPT to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, in parallel, France and Germany signed a joint development agreement in 1984 and were joined by Italy and the UK in 1986. In 1986 the European Commission proposed reserving the 900 MHz spectrum band for GSM, the former Finnish prime minister Harri Holkeri made the worlds first GSM call on July 1,1991, calling Kaarina Suonio using a network built by Telenokia and Siemens and operated by Radiolinja. In the following year,1992, saw the sending of the first short messaging service message, work began in 1991 to expand the GSM standard to the 1800 MHz frequency band and the first 1800 MHz network became operational in the UK by 1993 called and DCS1800. Also that year, Telecom Australia became the first network operator to deploy a GSM network outside Europe and the first practical hand-held GSM mobile phone became available. In 1995, fax, data and SMS messaging services were launched commercially, in the same year, the GSM Association formed. Pre-paid GSM SIM cards were launched in 1996 and worldwide GSM subscribers passed 100 million in 1998, in 2000 the first commercial GPRS services were launched and the first GPRS-compatible handsets became available for sale. In 2001 the first UMTS network was launched, a 3G technology that is not part of GSM, worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 500 million. In 2002 the first Multimedia Messaging Service were introduced and the first GSM network in the 800 MHz frequency band became operational, EDGE services first became operational in a network in 2003 and the number of worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 1 billion in 2004. By 2005, GSM networks accounted for more than 75% of the cellular network market. In 2005 the first HSDPA-capable network also became operational, the first HSUPA network launched in 2007. Worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded three billion in 2008, GSM is a second-generation standard employing time-division multiple-Access spectrum-sharing, issued by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. GSM, for the first time, set a standard for Europe for wireless networks. It was also adopted by many countries outside Europe and this allowed subscribers to use other GSM networks that have roaming agreements with each other

5.
General Packet Radio Service
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General Packet Radio Service is a packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication systems global system for mobile communications. GPRS was originally standardized by European Telecommunications Standards Institute in response to the earlier CDPD and it is now maintained by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project. GPRS usage is typically charged based on volume of data transferred, contrasting with circuit switched data, sometimes billing time is broken down to every third of a minute. Usage above the cap is charged per megabyte, speed limited. In 2G systems, GPRS provides data rates of 56–114 kbit/second, 2G cellular technology combined with GPRS is sometimes described as 2. 5G, that is, a technology between the second and third generations of mobile telephony. It provides moderate-speed data transfer, by using unused time division multiple access channels in, for example, GPRS is integrated into GSM Release 97 and newer releases. The GPRS core network allows 2G, 3G and WCDMA mobile networks to transmit IP packets to external networks such as the Internet, the GPRS system is an integrated part of the GSM network switching subsystem. This is much faster using the ordinary SMS over GSM. GPRS supports the protocols, Internet Protocol. In practice, built-in mobile browsers use IPv4 since IPv6 was not yet popular, in this mode PPP is often not supported by the mobile phone operator but if the mobile is used as a modem to the connected computer, PPP is used to tunnel IP to the phone. This allows an IP address to be assigned dynamically to the mobile equipment and this is typically used for applications like wireless payment terminals, although it has been removed from the standard. When TCP/IP is used, each phone can have one or more IP addresses allocated, GPRS will store and forward the IP packets to the phone even during handover. The TCP handles any packet loss, devices supporting GPRS are divided into three classes, Class A Can be connected to GPRS service and GSM service, using both at the same time. Such devices are known to be available today, Class B Can be connected to GPRS service and GSM service, but using only one or the other at a given time. During GSM service, GPRS service is suspended, and then resumed automatically after the GSM service has concluded, most GPRS mobile devices are Class B. Class C Are connected to either GPRS service or GSM service, must be switched manually between one or the other service. A true Class A device may be required to transmit on two different frequencies at the time, and thus will need two radios. To get around this requirement, a GPRS mobile may implement the dual transfer mode feature

6.
Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution
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Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution is a digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates as a backward-compatible extension of GSM. EDGE is considered a pre-3G radio technology and is part of ITUs 3G definition, EDGE was deployed on GSM networks beginning in 2003 – initially by Cingular in the United States. EDGE is standardized also by 3GPP as part of the GSM family, a variant, so called Compact-EDGE, was developed for use in a portion of Digital AMPS network spectrum. EDGE can be used for any packet switched application, such as an Internet connection, Evolved EDGE continues in Release 7 of the 3GPP standard providing reduced latency and more than doubled performance e. g. to complement High-Speed Packet Access. Peak bit-rates of up to 1 Mbit/s and typical bit-rates of 400 kbit/s can be expected, eDGE/EGPRS is implemented as a bolt-on enhancement for 2. 5G GSM/GPRS networks, making it easier for existing GSM carriers to upgrade to it. EDGE is a superset to GPRS and can function on any network with GPRS deployed on it, EDGE requires no hardware or software changes to be made in GSM core networks. EDGE-compatible transceiver units must be installed and the base station needs to be upgraded to support EDGE. If the operator already has this in place, which is often the case today, today EDGE is supported by all major chip vendors for both GSM and WCDMA/HSPA. In addition to Gaussian minimum-shift keying, EDGE uses higher-order PSK/8 phase shift keying for the five of its nine modulation. EDGE produces a 3-bit word for every change in carrier phase and this effectively triples the gross data rate offered by GSM. It introduces a new technology not found in GPRS, Incremental Redundancy and this increases the probability of correct decoding. EDGE can carry a bandwidth up to 236 kbit/s for 4 timeslots in packet mode and this means it can handle four times as much traffic as standard GPRS. EDGE meets the International Telecommunications Unions requirement for a 3G network and it also enhances the circuit data mode called HSCSD, increasing the data rate of this service. In GPRS, the Coding Schemes CS-1 to CS-4 specify the number of parity bits generated by the cyclic code, in GPRS Coding Schemes CS-1 through CS-3, the convolutional code is of rate 1/2, i. e. each input bit is converted into two coded bits. In Coding Schemes CS-2 and CS-3, the output of the code is punctured to achieve the desired code rate. In GPRS Coding Scheme CS-4, no coding is applied. In EGPRS/EDGE, the Modulation and Coding Schemes MCS-1 to MCS-9 take the place of the Coding Schemes of GPRS, MCS-1 through MCS-4 use GMSK and have performance similar to GPRS, while MCS-5 through MCS-9 use 8PSK. In all EGPRS Modulation and Coding Schemes, a code of rate 1/3 is used

7.
UMTS
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The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses wideband code division multiple access radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency, UMTS specifies a complete network system, which includes the radio access network, the core network and the authentication of users via SIM cards. The technology described in UMTS is sometimes referred to as Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access or 3GSM. Unlike EDGE and CDMA2000, UMTS requires new base stations and new frequency allocations, UMTS supports maximum theoretical data transfer rates of 42 Mbit/s when Evolved HSPA is implemented in the network. Users in deployed networks can expect a transfer rate of up to 384 kbit/s for Release 99 handsets, since 2006, UMTS networks in many countries have been or are in the process of being upgraded with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, sometimes known as 3. 5G. Currently, HSDPA enables downlink transfer speeds of up to 21 Mbit/s, work is also progressing on improving the uplink transfer speed with the High-Speed Uplink Packet Access. The first national consumer UMTS networks launched in 2002 with a emphasis on telco-provided mobile applications such as mobile TV. UMTS combines three different terrestrial air interfaces, GSMs Mobile Application Part core, and the GSM family of speech codecs, the air interfaces are called UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access. All air interface options are part of ITUs IMT-2000, in the currently most popular variant for cellular mobile telephones, W-CDMA is used. Please note that the terms W-CDMA, TD-CDMA and TD-SCDMA are misleading, while they suggest covering just a channel access method, they are actually the common names for the whole air interface standards. W-CDMA or WCDMA, along with UMTS-FDD, UTRA-FDD, or IMT-2000 CDMA Direct Spread is an air interface found in 3G mobile telecommunications networks. W-CDMA uses the DS-CDMA channel access method with a pair of 5 MHz wide channels, in contrast, the competing CDMA2000 system uses one or more available 1.25 MHz channels for each direction of communication. W-CDMA systems are criticized for their large spectrum usage, which delayed deployment in countries that acted relatively slowly in allocating new frequencies specifically for 3G services. The specific frequency bands originally defined by the UMTS standard are 1885–2025 MHz for the mobile-to-base, in the US, 1710–1755 MHz and 2110–2155 MHz are used instead, as the 1900 MHz band was already used. Some carriers such as T-Mobile use band numbers to identify the UMTS frequencies, in the late 1990s, W-CDMA was developed by NTT DoCoMo as the air interface for their 3G network FOMA. Later NTT DoCoMo submitted the specification to the International Telecommunication Union as a candidate for the international 3G standard known as IMT-2000. The ITU eventually accepted W-CDMA as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards, as an alternative to CDMA2000, EDGE, later, W-CDMA was selected as an air interface for UMTS. As NTT DoCoMo did not wait for the finalisation of the 3G Release 99 specification, however, this has been resolved by NTT DoCoMo updating their network

8.
Hutchison 3G
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The company was founded in 2002. CK Hutchison Holdings owns direct majority interests in the companies operate the networks that are branded 3. These networks are majority-owned by Hutchison Asia Telecommunications, an owned subsidiary of CK Hutchison. Its operations in Europe are run by a division,3 Group Europe. All 3-branded networks provide 4G and 3G technology, Hutchison Whampoa no longer holds a 3G licence in Israel which was operated under the brand Orange, and in Norway which is not operational yet. As of 30 June 2015, registered 3 customers worldwide numbered over 30.1 million, besides that,3 UK and also 3 Ireland initially made the decision to block direct Internet access from handsets, while 3 Austria allowed access to the Internet since the beginning. In 2004,3 released a PC Card 3G Data Card for Windows-based laptops which allows Internet access through 3s network directly from the computer, accompanied by a range of data, later, more cards and USB modems for HSDPA were introduced. The phones were sold exclusively by 3 on contract and on a prepaid basis,3 also produced an application called Skype on 3 which brought the same functionality to S60 and J2ME-capable phones. 3 does not charge users for calls to this number and this service is available in Australia, Ireland and the UK, it has been discontinued in Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy and Sweden. A company called iSkoot was behind at least some of the clients and back-end servers and it appears this shutdown initially affected the J2ME version and some Skypephones, but some S60 versions were not affected. Skype have started sending emails indicating the Skype on 3 service will be terminated on 30 September 2014, in spite of Threes original free for life advertising. The recommended clients for smartphones will use the data connection which may be liable to charges, instead of the dedicated access number used by the client. This also allows users to use their free or inclusive bundles and allowances while abroad, however, pre-pay customers do not benefit fully, as they can not yet use each 3 branded network for 3 Like Home. 3 Australia confirm that calls made using 3 Like Home are not included in any cap plan or inclusive bundles and this arrangement is possible because of the roaming agreements between the networks. Each of the networks provides service to other partners networks free of roaming charges. This means that the marginal cost of a call is much the same as a call on the home network. At the end of April 2009,3 UK announced that 3 Like Home would no longer be available to customers of the 3 UK network from 30 June 2009, on 7 April 2010,3 Sweden announced that 3 Like Home would be discontinued on 23 May 2010. No cancellation announcements have yet made for customers of other 3 networks

9.
Telecom Italia
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Telecom Italia is an Italian telecommunications company headquartered in Rome, which provides telephony services, mobile services, and DSL data services. The companys stock is traded in the Borsa Italiana, in 1925, the phone network was reorganised by Benito Mussolini cabinet and Stipel company was established in the same year. The original core of Telecom Italia includes also 4 more different companies, TIMO, Teti, TELVE, each of them worked in a specific geographical area. It was in 1964 that these companies merged in one single group and it was run by the Italian Ministry of Finance. SIP was a monopoly from 1964 to 1996 and Italian people had to pay the Canone Telecom in order to have a phone at home. Telecom Italia was officially created on 27 July 1994 by the merger of several telecommunication companies among which SIP, Iritel, Italcable, Telespazio and this was due to a plan of reorganization of the telecommunication sector presented by IRI to the Minister of Finance. In 1995, the mobile telephony division was spun off as TIM, interbusiness, Italy’s largest Internet network, was created and in the same period with TIN and the first ISPs, Internet became a reality in Italy too. By 2001, the company was in debt and was bought by Marco Tronchetti Provera, Telecom Italia Media, the Groups multimedia company was formed in 2003 from Seat Pagine Gialle, focussing its business on the television sector with La7 and MTV channels. After the reorganization of editorial activities, in 2005 Telecom Italia acquired Tin. it, the Telecom Italia Group also operates in South America, in Brazil as TIM Brasil, and in Argentina and Paraguay with Telecom Argentina Group. TIM Brasil has its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. Telecom Italia had bigger debts in 2005, and, one year later, in 2007 the company was bought by Telco. Telefónica currently owns 46% of Telco, the company that controls 22% of Telecom Italia. In late 2013, Telefónica announced its intention to acquire the entirety of Telco by January 2014, in 2015, Telecom Italia Group started a rebranding process of the telephony and mobile businesses under the single TIM brand. In the same year, the Board of Directors approved the new division, the Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane, or INWIT. It was revealed in October 2015 that shareholders Vivendi would raise their stakes further in the company from its current level of 15. 49%, Telecom Italia Mobile illegally charged money for Internet providing renew subscriptions for 5 years to its customers during the free subscription renewals. On 8 August 2012, TIM Brasil became involved in a scandal in Brazilian news after the release of report by the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency Anatel. The report points that on TIMs prepaid voice plan, called Infinity, in just one day,8.1 million calls were dropped and the total profit was approximately $2 million. It also operates in international services, for other operators and corporations

10.
WIND (Italy)
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Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA is an Italian telecom operator which offers integrated mobile, fixed and Internet services. Wind Italy has 21.6 million mobile customers with a share of 22. 9% and 2.8 million customers on fixed lines with a market share of 13. 2%. The company serves through a network of 159 owned stores and around 498 exclusive franchised outlets under the WIND brand, Wind was established in 1997 by the Italian Electrical Company Enel, which sold Wind in 2005 to Wind Telecom S. p. A. In 2006 the group appointed Khaled Bichara as the Chief Operating Officer of the company, Wind was the third mobile operator to join the Italian market. Wind currently runs a GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, while the GSM/GPRS/EDGE network is available almost everywhere, UMTS, HSPA and LTE are still expanding in the country. Wind has been also the provider for Italy of i-mode. In April 2013, Wind announced it would be investing $1.3 billion on building a mobile broadband network to catch-up with its rivals Telecom Italia. In 2009, it launched a project named 10decimi which was meant to facilitate the communication between donors and the charities they support, the venture won them the Lombard Elite - The Milan Finance Company award for their dedication to Corporate Social Responsibility. In 2015, it was awarded the title of Telecommunications Operator of the Year in Italy, Wind was the main sponsor of A. S. Wind Hellas Wind Telecom, parent company, Wind Mobile, a Canadian company that licenses the WIND brand Official website

11.
BT Italia
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BT in Italy is represented by BT Italia, which is the second largest business telecommunication operator in the Italian market, controlling an 11% share. The captive business kick-started Albacoms presence in the Italian TLC market, in 2006, BT won a multi-year worldwide outsourcing contract with FIAT, that included the purchase of Atlanet, FIATs TLC venture. Atlanet was then merged with Albacom to become BT Italia, in 2007, BT made a public offer to purchase 100% of I. NETs capital, acknowledging a plan to merge the company into BT Italia and delisting the resulting company

12.
Fastweb (telecommunications company)
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FASTWEB S. p. A. is an Italian telecommunications company that provides landline, broadband Internet and digital television services. Fastweb is also one of the prominent companies in Italy providing FTTH connections, Fastweb is fully owned by the Swiss telecommunication company Swisscom. In May 2007, the Swiss telecommunications company Swisscom paid 3 billion euros for 82. 4% of Fastweb, Swisscom subsequently bought out the minority shareholders after making a voluntary tender offer in September 2010. Therefore Fastweb has been delisted from Borsa Italiana, since 1999, the year it was established in Milan, Fastweb has invested over €5 billion in a new-generation Optical Fiber Network spanning more than 32,000 km. Today the Fiber Network of Fastweb is the most extended in Europe, in September 2008, Fastweb became also a mobile virtual network operator and launched its Mobile Voice and Data service. Today, business customers account for 60% of the total revenue, on the government market, Fastweb became the main supplier of Fixed Network Telephone and Data services to Central Public Agencies

13.
Lycamobile
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Lycamobile is a mobile virtual network operator operating in 21 countries worldwide. The bulk of Lycamobile revenue is claimed to be generated from Lycamobiles SIM products, Lycatel, also a part of Lyca Group, serves its growing base of customers within expatriate and ethnic global niche segments that want to make international calls. Lycamobile sells international Pay-As-You-Go SIM cards to consumers wanting to make telephone calls. An MVNO leases radio frequency from mobile network operators and it forms partnerships with the operators in each country it serves. Lycamobile has also developed distinct business structures such as MVNA arrangements in different countries and it has often adopted an aggressive pricing strategy on entry to new markets in order to acquire early market share. In some instances, MNO partners of Lycamobile have been surprised by the actual rather than their own projected estimated growth of Lycamobiles products. In 2015 Lycamobile renewed a multi-year MVNO deal with O2 The Lycamobile brand concept was launched in 2005 with the first trading using the brand taking place in 2006, since its launch in the Netherlands in 2006, Lycamobile has more than 15 million Pay-As-You-Go customers worldwide. In 2015, PC Magazines mobile analyst advised US customers to take a look at some of the smaller virtual carriers which may offer better service or more customized plans such as Lycamobile. The brand, like its parent, is aimed at those who wish to make national and international calls on a Pay-As-You-Go basis. Lycatel offers online sales of calling cards and direct sales through the Lycateleshop. The Lycatel brand is not itself used as a card brand name. The most popular brands of Lycatel calling cards include Africa Tel, Cobra, Eurocity, One+One, Spicy Tel, Supertel, Unitel, Viper, each calling card brand features different calling rates to different destinations with some being more suited to single use. Others are more suited to use but will feature a higher standard rate for each call placed. Whilst there is a level of confusion between pricing, Lycatels underlying charges are significantly less than connecting international calls in a conventional sense. The Lycatel brand has been in existence since 2001 although its early ownership, wholesalers in turn sell onto retailers who then sell primarily to expatriate customers who want to make low-cost international calls. Although the calling card market is considered to be in decline with the arrival of mobile telephony. The Lycatalk brand is part of the Lyca family of brands. Lycatalk has less prominence than the Lycatel and Lycamobile brands but has a structured product with no set up fees or other maintenance charges

14.
Tiscali
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Tiscali s. p. a. is an Italian telecommunications company, based in Cagliari, Sardinia, that provides internet and telecommunications services to its domestic market. It previously had operations in other European nations through its acquisition of many smaller European Internet Service Providers in the late 1990s, Tiscali was created in January 1998 in Cagliari by Renato Soru, following the deregulation of Italian telephone system. The company owes its name to a Sardinian mountain at which remains of an ancient village were found, from March 1999 onward, Tiscali offered Tiscali Free Net, a subscription-free Internet service where customers only had to pay for the time they were online. This pushed other Italian providers to repeal their fixed subscription fees, on October 1999, the company went though an initial public offering to be traded on the Italian stock exchange at a share price of 46 Euros. 3,098,000 shares were offered to investors of which 2,658,000 shares were created through a capital increase, Soru made 20,240,000 Euros on the IPO. In 2012, the price per share had plummeted to 0.04 Euros, between 2001 and 2003, shares were also traded on the French stock exchange. Each of Tiscalis regional companies offer services, which may include broadband internet access. Between 2007 and 2008, Tiscali briefly operated an IPTV service in Italy and its UK television service, Tiscali TV was acquired by TalkTalk in 2009. In May 2009, its IP/MPLS backbone counted 90 Points of Presence and extended over 17 European countries and across the United States and its Autonomous System was a core ASN in the global Internet routing table, as well as the largest IPv6 backbone outside Asia. The network was sold to the Italian private equity firm BS Private Equity SpA on 27 May 2009, and renamed Tinet. Tiscali ran similar web portals for each of its countries, which features such as webmail, reviews, news, videos, dating, chat, radio, TV guide, streaming TV channels. Tiscali published a web browser of the same name which was distributed with its dial-up Internet packages. It was produced by UltraBrowser and used the core of Microsofts Internet Explorer to display web pages, the software has not been included in installation packages since Tiscalis corporate rebranding in 2004. Tiscali offered dial-up Internet access in Finland under service name Surfeu, Tiscali Campus in Cagliari has 1,000 employees. The center includes a development division for Internet technologies where researchers like Antonio Tuzzi, Luca Manunza, beginning in 2004, Tiscali sold off many of its regional sub-companies to native telecommunications operators in order to focus more on prime target areas. On 16 August 2004, Tiscali sold its Austrian branch, Tiscali Österreich GmbH, on 20 August 2004, Tiscali sold its South African branch, Tiscali, to MWEB Holdings Ltd. On 23 August 2004, Tiscali sold its Norwegian branch, Tiscali AS, on 30 August 2004, Tiscali sold its Swedish counterpart, Tiscali AB, to Spray Network AB, then a subsidiary of Lycos. On 16 September 2004, Tiscali sold its Swiss counterpart, Tiscali AG, on 19 October 2004, Tiscali sold its South African mobile telephone network, Tiscali Mobile, to Vodacom